This invention relates to telecommunications systems, and more particularly to telecommunications systems which can provide a wide range of services without the need for hard-wired connections to the end users of the system.
Traditional telecommunications systems rely heavily on hard-wired connections all the way to the end points of the system. For example, traditional telephone systems employ twisted pair wiring to each home, office, or other location served by the system. Traditional cable television systems similarly employ coaxial cable or optical fiber to each end user of the system. Such extensive hard-wired networks are extremely costly to install and maintain. A new service provider who is restricted to such technologies must therefore make an enormous capital investment in hard-wired plant before that provider can even begin to extend service to a new area. Existing technologies such as twisted pair wire or coaxial cable also have limited service capabilities. Upgrading such hard-wired connections (e.g., to optical fiber) to offer more services is very expensive even for the owner of the network.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for new ways for telecommunications services providers to gain access to end users of such services. Such new access should be of lower cost than traditional hard-wired connections, and should also have greater capacity than such traditional technologies as twisted pair wire and even coaxial cable.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide telecommunications systems which allow access to end users of the system without the need for hard-wired connections to those users.